


i am nobody (are you nobody too?)

by spyriteVestar



Category: How to Train Your Dragon (Movies), Rise of the Guardians (2012)
Genre: Angst, BAMF Emily Jane Pitchiner, BAMF Jack Frost (Guardians of Childhood), Fluff, Heart of a Dragon's Soul, Hijinks & Shenanigans, How Do I Describe This Fic?, How Does Silverly Do This?, Things Get Worse and Better and Worse and Better, Time Travel, fic of a fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-20
Updated: 2020-06-20
Packaged: 2021-03-04 07:13:23
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 18,820
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24829633
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/spyriteVestar/pseuds/spyriteVestar
Summary: Emily sees how this will end. Jack will return to the past, to his family, and finally be happy.And she will be left alone.
Relationships: Hiccup Horrendous Haddock III/Jack Frost (Guardians of Childhood), Jack Frost & Mother Nature | Emily Jane Pitchiner
Comments: 6
Kudos: 54





	i am nobody (are you nobody too?)

**Author's Note:**

  * For [SilverlySilence](https://archiveofourown.org/users/SilverlySilence/gifts).
  * Inspired by [Spirit of a Guardian](https://archiveofourown.org/works/22963180) by [SilverlySilence](https://archiveofourown.org/users/SilverlySilence/pseuds/SilverlySilence). 



> READ THIS I SWEAR TO THE GODS IF YOU DON'T I WILL JUDGE EACH AND EVERY ONE OF YOU!  
> Reading?  
> Good.  
> Ok first things first, if you just clicked onto this off Ao3 thinking you could just read this? This is a fic of a fic, so y'all better have read Heart of a Dragon's Soul first.  
> Second; this is an anniversary gift fic that I wrote for SilverlySilence. The first part is from tumblr, the second part is from the last week.  
> Third: SERIOUSLY, YOU BETTER HAVE ALREADY READ HEART OF A DRAGON'S SOUL FIRST!!! I'M WATCHING YOU!!!
> 
> Silverly: I hope you like this, I worked really hard on it. I hope this is enough to win back the title of Angst Master.  
> Sleepless Squad: I love you guys so much?? Thank you for being so excited to read this, and making me want to keep working on it. You're all the best, and I love you dearly.  
> Sleepless Server (aka all my new discord friends, hi!): Special shoutout to everyone who talked about their cats and posted pics, because I LOVE CATS! You guys are great, and I'm looking forward to seeing the discord blow up afterwards.
> 
> Ok. Onto the fic! If you guys are willing, I WOULD LOVE IT IF YOU GUYS DID REACTION READS!!! Silverly did that on one of her DoDE chapters recently, and I am now shamelessly stealing the idea. But also feel free to just enjoy the fic!

Jack mourns. He lives and laughs and does his duty, all while he grieves for a life lost and his joy burns all the more strongly because of it. But the intangibility is still there.

The Guardians treat the intangibility as a disease. They try to heal it, to cure it, to fix him. 

She knows better.

This isn’t something they can fix, because there’s nothing wrong with him. Well, nothing other than the silver strands of celestial energy that tie him to that body. But even now the winter of his soul is breaking through it, no matter how much binding they rewrap. (no matter how big you build your snowman, spring will always come.)

Emily sees how this will end. Jack will return to the past, to his family, and finally be happy. The Guardians will worry, and panic, and finally have their flaws shoved straight into their faces.

Good.

Besides, it’s not like they won’t recover. Historically, they’ve been incredibly good at supporting one another in times of crisis or emotional distress (excluding jack of course, because if his core is joy, of course he must be fine. ugh). They’ll be alright.

The Seven Brightest Lights will notice him leaving, of course. But again, they have each other. They have their own goals, a common purpose to work towards. And they’re Jack’s kids; they know how to find joy despite pain.

So all the loose ends tie up.

Emily sighs a little and leans back on her hands, idly kicking her feet back and forth. She’s craving something sweet. Maybe a crepe. The question is, does she really want to go to the effort of making herself visible?

“Hey Rapunzel. What’s got you looking so mopey?” Cold wind curls against her face in a hello, as blue appears in the corner of her eye. Jack sits himself down next to her, legs swinging out into open air as he peers down at Tokyo.

“What makes you think I’m mopey?” She looks at him from the corner of her eye, raising a thin eyebrow 

“C’mon, you’re sitting in the highest spot you could find, you’ve been sighing–more often than you usually do, that is–”

“Ha, ha.”

“–and you’ve got that look on your face. The one where you’re sort of scowling, but more sad than angry. All… somber-y.” Speaking of looks on faces, his has that dumb look where he gets all concerned and his eyes start shining.

“I don’t.” She can see him deadpan and start to retort, so she groans and finally turns to face him. “Look, if I do look mopey, I dunno why. It’s not like I can think of anything to be sad about. Honest.”

His mouth twists, but he takes her at her word. Out of the two of them, she’s always been the one who’s found it harder to deal with negative feelings. As soon as she feels bad, she starts isolating herself and pushing people away. And then it just ends up being a vicious cycle of her feeling alone and awful and like everything is horrible.

But hey, at least now she can acknowledge that and stop herself from continuing to do so. Jack just never tells anyone that he’s feeling bad, and buries the pain underneath laughter and smiles, until someone finally sits up and notices.

Sometimes no one does.

 _Not anymore._ She thinks, feeling her lip curl to reveal teeth. _I won’t let my anger stop me from reaching out._

A cold finger touches her cheek, making her flinch back reflexively. Jack is looking at her with fond amusement coloring the arch of his smirk.

“Cold!” She snaps at him, shoving his shoulder (but not very hard. he’s made her soft, the little shit).

“That’s better! Now your scowl is back to normal!” He laughs and flutters his eyelashes exaggeratedly. “Filled with rage~!”

“I’ll show you rage, you little shit–!” She grabs for him, and he lets himself fall forward into the open air, laughing. She jumps after him, warm wind swirling around her form, propelling her after him. He’s faster than her, barely, but he’s still laughing far too hard, so she catches up easily.

“Tag!” She cries, and immediately dives down into the buildings below, to try and lose him. They both know this dance, and they’ve spent hours like this before. Just chasing one another across a city.

She loses him near Harajuku, and doubles back to hide near the cherry blossoms that are beginning to bloom in Naka-Meguro. Gods, she’s going to miss this once he’s gone. Laughing as she flies above the trains, she feels something wet on her cheeks.

Rain?

Pausing in midair, she looks up, even though she can feel how clear the sky is. Touching her face, she looks at her fingers, and yeah. They’re wet.

What?

She sniffs her fingertips, smelling salt.

Wait.

Is… is she crying?

Touching near her eyes, Emily realizes that yes, she’s crying. And she has no idea why. It’s not like anything is wrong. She’s not an expert at emotion, but she’s pretty sure this isn’t happy crying. Unless it is. Jack would probably know; he may not cry often, but he’s almost constantly on the verge of tears.

“Emily!” He almost slams into her, but pulls up at the last second. “Wind sounded worried–are you crying?!” He places his cold hands right on her face, wiping away the tears with his thumbs.

“Are you okay?”

“I don’t know.” She says, the words coming out small. “I just started crying without realizing it?”

It comes out as a question, but she’s confused. And feeling kinda shitty now actually, now that she’s been crying for a minute or so.

Gods she could really go for a crepe now.

“Ok. Do you want to talk about it, or do you want a distraction?” He asks her, shoving hands into his hoodie pocket. He rifles for a second, then comes back with a tissue.

“Distraction.” She takes the offered tissue, scrubbing the tears off her skin. It’s getting close to sundown, which means Tsar Asshole’s ship will be visible soon, ugh. Concentrating slightly, she gathers some of the water vapor into clouds. She feeds a little power into them and they rapidly begin to expand over the city.

Try to spy on us now, bitch. She thinks, not a little vindictively.

“Emily.” Jack lightly scolds, but there’s too much buried amusement for her to take him seriously.

“What? You know I don’t like Tsar Asshole.”

“Look, Manny has his flaws–”

“I mean, he completely left you–”

“–but the pressures of his position–”

“–completely alone, without a word–”

“–so we can’t judge him too unfairly.”

“–three. hundred. years.” She finishes, jabbing her finger into his shoulder with each word for emphasis.

“Alright, alright. Let’s not argue about Manny again.” He grins at her. “How about we sneak into a karaoke place, and have some fun?”

“You had me at karaoke.” She grins back, and follows him as they flip through the streets towards their destination.

She’s gonna miss him.

…

Oh.

_Oh._

She’s gonna miss him. Because Jack is her best friend, and without him… she’s alone.

Shit.

* * *

Emily’s not a good person. Not like Jack. She’s selfish, and bratty, and stubborn. She’s indecisive; pushing people away even as she clings to them. Her touch brings destruction, and her rage ruins lives. (like Typhan, who had tried so hard to love her. and in return she had only given him pain.)

She wants to hold onto Jack. To keep him in the present, or follow him into the past. To keep the last person she cares about close. She knows it’s a selfish desire. Something that will only hurt both of them in the long run.

And…

It’s not what Jack needs.

He needs to be with his Viking. His family and friends. He belongs in the lands of dragons, in a time long past. Where he’ll find his body. Become mortal.

Live and laugh and love.

…and die.

Gods. She just wants to keep him here forever. She can even see it; an eternity of them flying through cities that rise and fall, trailing winter and summer behind them. The children of the weather who love the wind and bring the seasons. Untouched by time.

She’d be happy. She wouldn’t be alone.

And she’d never go through with that future.

Because she is selfish, but if there is one person in the world who she can be selfless for, it’s Jack. (not Pitch. maybe she could for her father, but never for Pitch Black.)

And she could never make him suffer an eternal life of grieving. Not Jack, whose eyes are always full of unshed tears. Not Jack, who feels everything so strongly and intensely. Whose years had only heightened his kindness, rather than turning it to apathy. He is the strongest person she knows, to be able to look at the world for centuries and still see the good in it.

(she will never tell him, but she hadn’t always hated Manny. disliked, sure. but the hate had only come after she had realized what he had knowingly done, to a boy as kind as Jack.)

So for Jack, for her best friend, she will smile through the pain, say her goodbyes, and watch him leave forever.

Letting him go may be the hardest thing she’s ever done.

She thinks this just might break her. But she’s Emily Jane Pitchiner, the daughter of the greatest warrior in a dynasty of conquerors, the queen of weather and seasons. She is _Mother fucking Nature,_ and if there is one thing she knows how to do, it’s piece herself together after falling apart.

She’ll survive this.

She has to.

* * *

  
  


Here's the thing. Emily made her choice.

She knew that it was only a matter of time before the magic fighting off Lunanoff's 'blessing' won, and Jack disappeared into the past. She knew that she could stop it, if she wanted to. She also knew that she could never force Jack to live an immortal life full of grief.

She knew when the time came... that she would let him go. And she didn't know what he would do, but she hoped that he would be happy. That he would find a way to see his Viking again. That despite the odds against him, he would get his happy ending.

The happy ending that she would never have, because...

She knew, that when he went back... he would be inside the Barbaric Barrier when it rose.

The barrier that even now stood strong as ever, despite the passing centuries.

The barrier that not even she could cross.

The barrier that meant that when the time came, Emily would never see Jack again.

Oh, how she wished and cursed in equal measure, for the blissful ignorance of her past self. The girl who had heard the whispers the winds had carried to her, of the plan to create a barrier to protect the magic of an entire archipelago. The girl who had heard the barrier go up, and had shrugged and not thought of it any further.

Not realizing what she was losing; that her best friend was behind that curtain of mist.

Not until over a thousand years later, when the truth hit her harder than any blow could.

Oh, how she had cried and screamed when she understood the truth. She may have caused a thunderstorm. Or two. But it had been a long time since she allowed her negative emotions to control her. About three hundred years, in fact.

(Gods. She was going to miss him so much; that stupid brilliant boy who had befriended a monster and reminded her how to smile.)

So she spent her time well. She made time for Jack, always making sure that she happened to be nearby when he wanted company. He sought her out more than usual, since the Guardians kept dragging him into their lairs to try and 'fix' him, and she was a professional at hiding from them. 

She was also the only one who he could really talk to about his grief. The Seven Brightest Lights, bless their hearts, were too young and naive to the vastness of the world to truly understand the depths of what Jack was feeling. And the Guardians, as per usual, were avoiding talking to Jack about anything, instead hovering at a distance. Because they still hadn't realized that Jack hated dumping his problems on other people. If they ever got the balls to actually reach out and try to talk to Jack as equals, Emily might just drop dead from the shock of it all. (Just because Lunanoff was an avoidant sociopath whose approach to life was the most aggressive form of 'hands off teaching' she'd ever seen, doesn't mean they needed to follow in his example. One of these days, she was punching each of them in the face; Bunnymund twice.)

But, again, that meant he wasn't gonna go up to them and start talking about the life he had gained and lost. Emily, however? She knew his life story. The regrets and hopes and fears that he had forgotten. The horrors and wonders he had seen in his three hundred years of wandering aimlessly. His core and his values and his dreams and his deaths.

Just as he knew hers.

(The thing about friendship, about _trust,_ was that it grew over time. And even if she had been the most unlikeable bitch in the universe when they had met, Jack was... well, _Jack._ Three hundred years of having him in her life? She'd never stood a chance.)

She kept his secrets, and he kept hers. So he told her about Berk. About dragons and Wyldfae flying through the skies, Vikings walking the streets alongside gods, and a familiar and unfamiliar wind. (here the winds had whistled about the child who carried its blessing, but who it had never met before that day. it regretfully rustled of caution, until understanding came alongside trust, and love. Emily understood the feeling.)

About Finn. And Snotlout. The twins, trainees, and riders. About Hiccup. And about _Typhan._ Jack had broken that news gently, knowing her history with the Constellation. She still didn't understand how she hadn't known he was there, why hadn't the winds told her he was on Earth? Wind had whistled mournfully, reminding her that Emily had not spoken of her life to it until Jack had coaxed the story from her. It had not known Typhan's connection to her until after the barrier had gone up. And before that, she had not been interested in hearing of individuals with powers, not after the Purge had begun, and Pitch Black had resurfaced amongst the fear of an entire people.

Yeah. She can see why her younger self might not have been interested in hearing of the Barbaric Archipelago, until the barrier had gone up, and she couldn't.

Hindsight was 20/20.

Still, the point remained, that she knew what Jack was going back to. That he was going back to a place that cared. To a person who he loved wholeheartedly, and who loved him back.

And Emily would not stand in the way of that, but she wanted to spend as much time with Jack as she could. He was her best friend, and after he left, she'd be alone.

Again.

\----

Here's the thing. Emily knew it would happen.

She knew her decision. She knew he was fading; she knew the seconds were counting down; she knew, she knew, she knew.

But knowing something will happen, isn't the same as experiencing it.

She didn't know that she would be _there._

They were diving through clouds, using their powers to twist the water vapour into funny shapes. She had been making a very silly version of what Bunnymund would look like with a mustache.

And then Jack had cried out. She had turned to see him doubled over, having come to a standstill in midair. She had flown towards him then, ignoring her half-made bunny cloud.

"Jack!" She had called out, reaching for him. He had turned to look at her, blue eyes wide with shock. Her hand had reached out--

And he was gone.

Emily knew it would happen.

Here is what she didn't know.

She didn't know that she'd feel his absence immediately, tugging at her the way salt tugs at open wounds. She didn't know that she would float there, silent and still, a worried wind swirling around her. She didn't know that she would hear the soft, sharp _clink_ sound of her heart, breaking into pieces.

Emily had felt this pain before. This heartache. The feeling of the person who she loved most, leaving her forever. The feeling of family disappearing.

He was gone.

Her best friend was gone.

Her _brother_ was gone.

And she hadn't even said goodbye.

Emily Jane Pitchner fell from the sky.

\---

Here's the thing. Emily made her choice. Emily knew it would happen.

Emily _changed her mind._

Like hell was she living her life without Jack. Her brother, her winter, her opposite and counterpart.

She had survived her father leaving, and she could survive Jack leaving. But she didn't want to. She didn't want to live her life without the one person who understood her. Who understood what it meant to be a child of the weather. Who understood what it meant to live isolated, with only the winds for company. Who understood what it meant to die and be reborn; to fly and fall and rise up again and again.

Emily Jane Pitchiner fell from the sky.

Mother Nature rose up, with one thought on her mind.

She needed to get behind that barrier. 

"Wind." She called to her oldest friend first, her eyes and ears and wings. "You know better than I do; is there any way, any way at all, that I can get through the Barbaric Barrier?"

Wind swirled around her, cold air rustling her clothes with a soft murmur.

**_sorry-no-impossible-forbidden-regret-wishes-unhelpful-sorry-sorry-sorry_ **

"No need to apologize." She felt her lips curl into a smile. "Because that means I succeed."

**_shock-confusion-what-elaborate-elaborate_ **

"I know that there are ways through the Mists of the barrier; there is always another way, when it comes to magic. So for you to say I cannot cross them..." Emily laughs slightly, then, giddy with the idea of success. "I suppose that means there's an older version of me who's behind the barrier right now, and you're trying to prevent us from meeting so we don't create a paradox. Am I right?"

**_clever-sneaky-maybe-cannot-say_ **

She laughs again, because coming from the wind that's practically a confession.

"Well, time travel only makes sense. After all," she begins to descend to Earth, because she's going to want to be on the ground for this next part. "I do want to meet this Hiccup character while he's still alive."

Jack almost certainly wouldn't mind her staying on Berk. She could help him out with warding, and she was pretty damn great at farming. And she wanted to at least try to make amends with Typhan.

(And when his Viking died, she would be there to help him. The way he had helped her through her grief.)

Worst came to worst, she would just hide in a cloud for a thousand years.

The ground neared, a vast expanse of shrubs and grass. She landed gently on the ground and kneeled, placing both palms flat down.

And then she reached out.

\---

When Emily was young, her father taught her to fight. For some people that isn't much. But Kozmotis Pitchiner was the greatest warrior in an empire of conquerors. And Emily wanted so badly to be like her father, so she practiced and practiced. To her, fighting was a physical representation of her love and pride for her father.

When she met Typhan, he had called himself her father, and given her the power of storms and elements. He had meant well; trying to show kindness and compassion to an angry and grieving child. But his claim of fatherhood and love had only reminded her of what she was missing, and seemed a shallow replacement for the well of hurt she had carried within her. So she had lashed out, in fury and pain, and paid back Typhan's kindness with betrayal and hurt.

When Emily had been trapped inside of the shooting star, she had died. She had burned and frozen and melted and disintegrated. And all the while, she had thought to herself, how dare he. How dare her father break his one promise to her. He had promised to protect her. He had promised to _come back._ And she had believed him.

And now she was dead.

Her father had taught her to fight. Typhan had taught her of power and how to control it. But it was there, in that burning star in the middle of frozen space, that Emily Jane Pitchiner learned to survive.

When Death came for her, with a kind smile and a promise of peace, she swallowed the blood in her mouth. That child of warriors and constellations picked herself back up, pulled herself back together, and told Death that she didn't need peace. She was made for war.

She taught herself how to live while burning and freezing. She became the heat of her star and the cold of space. She changed and grew and it was there, in the dead of space, that the part of her that would one day be called Mother Nature was born.

But here is the thing. Surviving isn't living, and Emily was still trapped in her star; burning and freezing and dying and surviving.

And then she had met Sandy. Sandy, who had hitched a ride on her star, because he liked the way it shined. Who showed her what wishes and dreams looked like. Who gave her the means to make a wish of her own. Emily decided to move on.

And then they had met Pitch Black.

Emily had not understood fear, understood true grief, until she had seen the monster who wore her father's face. Who fought Sandy and carelessly swatted her aside.

It was then that she had fallen from among the stars, and crashed onto Earth.

The impact had shattered her star into pieces, freeing her from it's core, and knocking her breathless. She laid in that crater for what felt like an eternity, and then she had taken her first breath.

And oh.

_Oh._

There is no air in space, in a star, and Emily had forgotten the simple joy and pleasure of breathing. She cried, then. For her father, who was dead. For Typhan, who she had betrayed. For Sandy, who was fighting a monster. And for herself.

She had pulled herself out of that crater, still crying, and from her tears grew saplings and flowers. As she reached the top, she had felt the curious swirl of air on her face. She hadn't meant to smile at the sensation, but she did, letting some of her power swirl out to twine playfully with the air. It seemed happier then, as it blew through her hair, lifting it in large curling strands.

It was at the lip of the crater, as she took her first few stumbling steps on the planet, that she first met Earth's Magic.

Magic has no language; it simply is. But that doesn't mean it cannot make itself understood. Its presence crashed over her like a wave, overwhelming and intense and _too much._

  
  


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Emily _bolted._ The being that spoke to her frightened her with its immensity, and so she ran away. She made it a few steps, and then the air was there, _wind_ was there, and it picked her up and carried her to a cloud. She spent a moment simply breathing there, controlling her fear until it was small inside her stomach.

"You knew..." She had said after some time had passed, and her terror had abated enough to let her speak. "You knew I wanted to get away from the ground. Thank you."

Wind had whistled around her then, something she both could and couldn't understand. It had made her smile, and feed more of her power into the air around her; not controlling it, but giving.

(When she had learned Typhan's lessons, she hadn't thought anything of it. Hadn't seen anything wrong with the lessons on how to control and conquer, which was the foundation of how the children of the Golden Age were taught to live. To spread the glory and peace of the empire, they must not allow darkness to exist in anything. So they must spread their light to all they touch; and keep those they 'helped' happy, so that darkness would not hurt them. As long as everyone was happy, nothing could be wrong.)

(It was only later that she understood what the cost of that happiness was. That ignorance. That by conquering everything, by twisting it all into the same, _stagnant_ painless 'peace,' they were destroying their abilities to grow. To change, and fight, and overcome.)

(Emily was not happy. No, Emily was _angry.)_

(She didn't want to be a controller or conqueror. And she swore then that she would never follow in the footsteps of the Golden Age that had destroyed her father.)

So Emily befriended the winds, and she stayed far, far away from the ground. She stayed on that cloud, and made a home there, because she was afraid. She was scared of Earth and it's strange, powerful magic. And she was angry.

But Emily knew how to survive.

So she burned with the heat of her anger, and froze with the cold of her fear, and she survived like that, high in the sky. She made herself a home; a sprawling kingdom grown out of the soil and seeds that the wind brought to her. Any spirits who came close, left quickly, with stories of the powerful, cold, disdainful Mother Earth.

And she didn't leave that cloud for a long, long time.

Not until Jack.

Not until the wind brought a boy to her cloud. A young spirit who didn't run away to escape her cold, hot temper. Who told her stories to fill the silence. Who never asked anything of her.

He seemed to just be there to enjoy her company.

It baffled Emily like nothing else had.

Wind just kept laughing at her.

And eventually, she realized that even though he left fairly often... he always came back.

One day, almost a century after they met, Emily realized that they were friends.

It didn't take a full century after that for her to realize what he had done. Just as her father had taught her to fight; as Typhan had taught her to control; as she had taught herself to survive; as Sandy had taught her to dream...

Jack had taught her how to be happy.

She... she was _happy._

It was nothing like the shallow happiness of the Golden Age, which was born of peace and prosperity and privilege. No, this happiness didn't come in the absence of fear and pain. Emily was still afraid, still hurt, still _angry._ But she was also happy. And it was a tremulous, breathtaking thing, that happiness.

She wanted more.

The next time Jack came to visit, Emily left with him.

\---

When Emily had returned to her cloud, after saying goodbye to Jack, she was quiet. She had traveled with him for three days and three nights, always staying off of the ground, in the steady hold of the wind.

But after seeing the people of Earth go about their lives, after seeing how Jack moved through the air and across the trees, and after seeing the rivers and plants and mountains... Emily understood.

So she turned, and stepped off of her cloud. Wind understood what she wanted almost immediately; and carefully brought her down, and down, and down.

Emily landed on the ground, and smiled.

"It was always you. The entire time." She had laughed then, at her own foolishness. But all children are foolish, especially scared children.

What Emily had realized, when Jack had shown her the world, was that Earth was alive. It wasn't like the other planets and moons that were once a part of the Golden Age. It was a planet filled with Magic, and that Magic gave it _life._

The entire planet was connected through its Magic. It saturated the ground, the flesh and bones of the planet. It rippled through the water, the blood of the planet that gave life to everything. It radiated from the magma and fire within the planet's core; the heat and gravity and body of the planet.

And it swirled throughout the breath of the planet.

"I suppose I can't really blame you for not telling me, what with how I freaked out at you the first time we met." Emily smiled at the wind, at Earth's Magic, her oldest friend. "But to be fair, the message you gave me could have been phrased a bit better. I mean, 'child of stars you are mine?'"

**_sorry-accident-intentions-understanding-amusement-regret-hope-you-understand-question_ **

"Yeah, I understand now." She'd let her power curl out into the air to dance alongside Magic. "You were trying to tell me that you accepted me; that you understood who I was, and that you wanted me to stay."

**_yes-excitement-yes-understanding-yes-clever-clever-you_ **

She laughed again, because how could she not? The terrifying presence that she had so feared had turned out to be her friend.

(Earth's Magic does not like celestials. Not usually. They try to fit everything into the same mold, to keep things the same for eternity. They stop things from changing and growing and living. Everything is balanced, and they do not understand that. They try to control it, and when they cannot, they instead try to fight it. Earth does not like that. But Emily had fallen to Earth and cried. She had not controlled, or fought. She had given, and Magic had felt her own magic then. She was someone who survived while burning and freezing; who had changed and fallen and risen. She was someone who _changed._ She was a celestial, but she was something else too. And as her magic danced with its own in the air, she was someone who Magic decided it liked.)

(It had not meant to make her fear it. Had not meant to cause her limbs to shake with terror as she ran and panted and panicked. So after, it had only spoken to her as the wind; as something she liked. That she had figured out the truth was just another reason that Magic liked her. Clever, clever child of stars.)

\---

In the present, Emily lets her magic reach out for Earth. She feels it reach back curiously, the immense, intense presence of a planet's Magic.

**W̶̺̻̤͎͕̓͆Ḧ̶͔̣̝̲̬̂̄̓Ȧ̴̝̈́T̸̖̗̲̟̟͘ ̵̨̧̱̙̦͂́̋̐Ä̸̰̰̊R̵̖̲̬͕̲̈́͗͘E̷̬̹͋̉ ̴̤̤̩̐̃̉̔́Y̷̋͜O̵͈̟̊͜U̴̻̓̽͛͝ ̸̥̩̈D̵̬̺̈́̒O̴͓̺̘̟͓͑̈́̕̚I̴̹̻͕͈̣̔N̶̛̖͎̐G̴̜͈͓͇̱̏̃̈̿̇?̷̨̭̮̿̊͋͋̇**

"Please, Magic, _Earth."_ She pleads, focusing her intent into clear forms and shapes. "I want to be with Jack on the other side of that barrier. If you have seen it happen once, then it will happen again. _Please."_

**W̶̨̜̙̯̽H̴̙̼̯͚̾̋̈́͗̐Ǎ̴̻̪̻͂T̶̨̙̹̼̓͋ ̴̛̦̝̬̔̓Ẇ̵̛̹̦̬̩̌̈́͘Ï̷̫̩̹̍̑͆̋͜L̷͉̘͗̀̎̍͆L̸̢̹̝̲͕͌̈́̏ ̴͍̅Y̸̟̞̏̿̊̆̍Ŏ̸̡̟͉̲̔̇̒Ú̴̳̼̋̌͝ ̶̛̘͒̈́ͅG̷̹̈́͑̈͌I̶̧̛̜̝̺͙V̵̬̘̗̟̟͂̿̈̆͝É̴̯̬̉?̵̡͙̯̮̈́̐**

"What will you take?" She counters, knowing how this works. There is a low shaking around her, a rumbling, rolling sensation as she feels it laugh.

**Y̷̗̙͝O̸̪̰͆̕U̷̟͑̓ ̸̣̓͂H̸͈͆͊Ả̶̡̡V̷̩͕̿͊E̷̫̹͆͘ ̴̥̝̈́͋A̴͖̳̔L̵͉̄̈́ͅR̵̥̅E̸̹͍̐A̶̺̭̓̉D̵͇͎͊͘Y̸̖̪̑̓ ̴̻̈́Ṗ̶̱̯Ā̸̞̆I̷̢̊D̵̝̻͘ ̶̙̈́̄T̸̩̻͒̈́Ḧ̶͙̱́̔E̸͙̅͜ ̵̦̤̈́P̶͙͑͊R̶̘̖̋͑Ĩ̷̡̑Č̸̯E̵̛̥̝͋,̶̹̍͜ ̷̘̍C̷͖͌Ḥ̶̡̑I̵̱͍̾L̴̙͆D̵̢̠͐̋ ̸̺͌Ȍ̴̩F̵̬͛ ̵̬̰͒͝S̷̨͐T̴̳͗̓͜A̶̹̹͑̍R̴̹̽̚S̵̪͌.̵̦̩̚ ̷̥̑F̵̜̺̂O̴̰̙̊͘Ř̶̡ ̸̞̌Ą̶̇ ̸͕͍̉́T̸̟̺̓H̵̛͔̯Ô̷͉̈́U̵̥͑S̶͇̋A̶͇̥͆͒N̶̹̝̈́D̶̙̘͛ ̷̣͌̆Y̸͓̌E̷͕̓̕À̶̖̭Ṛ̸̮͛S̸̭͠ ̴̡̍Y̶̩̮͌̔O̴͇̚U̵͈͐̎ ̷̤F̴̛͓͓̌E̵̙̮̒̄D̸̰̟̀̔ ̶̢̈́͘M̵̩͛E̸̤͈͂ ̷̯͌̚Y̴͍̺̏O̷͎͛U̸̳͌R̴̨̝̒͝ ̷̺͖̌P̴̔͜O̴͎͓͝W̴͉̖̓̒Ě̷͈̠R̸͕͘,̴̘͇̉ ̴̧̰̒͝A̴̰͚̕Ń̵̹͝D̵̙͐ ̴̭͋H̸͇͋Ę̸̿L̸͉̎P̶̼͚̔Ë̴̗́Ḑ̶̺͂ ̸̼̜̀Ṱ̶͘͜O̴̤͛̍ ̶̢̥͗͊F̷̧̅̕Ẽ̶̮N̶͈̱̐̍D̸̦ ̵̙̂Ȍ̵̥̳F̵̙̈́̚F̶̨̛̹ ̴̺T̷̨͉͑̂H̸̜͍̄̓E̸̲̻̽̃ ̴͔͇͒F̸̩A̵̫̘̓̽L̷̨̐̂S̴̱͓̒̀E̸͎̿ ̵͖̿M̴̰̾O̶̝͊ͅȮ̸͎͍͗N̸͖̪̅.̸̳͎̌̂**

"Yeah, well, Lunanoff is an asshole. That's not exactly a high price to pay. I'd have done that anyway."

**Ä̴͖́̊͠ ̷̨̝̤̀̊̅̓͘T̵̯̉O̶̧͕͙͖̩̊̃͐̆͒L̶͕͍̭̈́̾͝L̸̢̜͈͆̊ ̷̺̙̬͚̎Ị̸̏Ş̶̥̲̻̥̾́́͝ ̴͎̎Ṕ̸̙̀͋Á̶̛̳Ȉ̷̗̗̙̩́̕Ď̴̜̗̪͖͌̈͠,̴̖͇̐͊̐̚ͅ ̶̜̟͎̍̌͒A̶̬̖̥͕̓ͅ ̶̠͕̊̒̆̍D̶͇̞̤̽̾͌E̸̝̐A̵̲͕͙͙͛͋̕͝L̸̼̣̂̆̉ ̸̦̆̾̅̈́̔Ĭ̶̛͖̠̩̟͊̔ͅS̴̛̜͇͉̒̌̽ ̴̝̭̎̍̑͗̔M̴̦̥͈̭̈́͝A̴͎̎D̴̮̙̤̫͔̾E̷̛̜̪̦̭͆͂̋͝.̷͔̙̈́̆̏ ̴͈͔̦̀̀ͅS̷̺̭̜̈́͠A̵̘͑̔̓F̵̤̬̦̯͉̊̊̑̏̚Ě̴̝͎̺̲ ̵͍̯͇͎̊͛́̓T̶͎̘̜̲͍̽̾̕R̶͓̐̚Å̴̘͉̗̍ͅV̷̜̍͊͗̿̾ͅE̸̡̘̖͈̺͒L̸̹̒̒Š̵̡̱͈͜,̶̨̟̦̆ ̷͙̪̿͗̎̈́Ĕ̶͔̬̖̟̍̃͠M̵̬̯̥̤̉Ḭ̷͚̙͋L̸̩͖̩̮̇̒͝Y̵̫.̴͖̜͓̑͌͐̑͜͝**

"Thank you." She whispers, and then she is burning and freezing and falling through time.

\---

Jack opens his eyes, which is the first clue that maybe his intangibility problem wasn't as fatal as he thought it was. He's staring up at the sky, which means that at the very least he's not back in that dang cave again.

Groaning slightly at the stretch of stiff muscles when he sits up, he glances around and immediately stills. The buildings around him are familiar; taller and more complex than he remembers, but he recognizes the shape and design.

He's on Berk.

He's _home._

For a brief, fleeting moment Jack feels joy well within him, rising up and empowering him. And then as quickly as it had come, that joy is doused by the silence around him. There are no villagers traveling the streets, no dragons flying about overhead. The buildings surrounding him are still and silent, and as he looks around, his heart sinks in his chest.

He's on Berk, and it's empty.

Jack stands slowly, casting a quick glance around, but no. His staff isn't there. Which means it's with his mortal body at the bottom of Snowy's lake. But his body is older again; and all his clothing and supplies are intact.

"What happened here?" He mutters, looking around for any overt damage. But there's nothing there, only some scorch marks on half-rebuilt buildings. It looks almost as though the entire tribe just packed up and left.

"Wind? Do you know where they went?" He asks.

A minute later, he regrets asking.

"...Of all the reckless, hare-brained ideas--" He scrubs a hand over his face, blue eyes glancing to the sky in exasperation. "They seriously left? Right as some new enemy appears? I get that apparently the overcrowding was horrible, and that this move has been planned for a while, but really? This is their best defensible position! They could've at least waited--"

Jack freezes, head snapping to the east. Every wind gusting through the village dies down, and true silence settles over the island.

"An armada." The spirit murmurs, lids narrowing his eyes into a glare. "One with magic-proof cages, and stained with dragon's blood."

Wind whistles next to him, tugging on his clothing and rustling his hair.

"Yeah, they're definitely not friendly. Let's get out of here, Wind. I don't want to stay on the off chance one of them can see spirits."

\---

Jack is long gone by the time Grimmel and the warlords forces reach Berk. But even as the conquerors follow the hunter through Berk, a pale, shadowy hand strokes over the frost that lingers on the ground.

"My, my. Seems that young Frost isn't as gone as you fools thought." Behind the figure, Dream Pirates flinch back, wary of his temper. Pitch Black smiles sharply, teeth bared and eyes glowing.

"Looks like I'll have my chance for revenge after all."

\---

Emily bursts into the past and immediately rockets into free-fall. She grins, offering a cheerful salute as she hurtles past a stunned gust of wind.

She's laughing as it catches up to her, the joy of success bubbling up in her chest like a fizzy soda.

**_how-what-you-what-two-yous-question-confusion-how-what-question-explain_ **

"Hel _lo_ there, Wind." Emily happily greets. "Long story short; your future self helped me travel back to this time so I could be on this side of the barrier when it goes up. Now then, any chance you could direct me to my brother?"

**_WHAT-WHO-BROTHER-what-WHAT-you-brother-who-WHAT_ **

She laughs louder.

\---

Jack arrives on New Berk, lightly landing on a branch overlooking the clearing filled with Vikings and dragons. The Wyldfae are suspiciously absent, and Jack hopes that nothing bad has happened.

(He had looked up what date Pixie Hollow was destroyed when he was back in the future, and cried when he realized it would happen within the year. He hoped that Peri and the others were alright, and had survived the Sidhe attack that destroyed their home. He had seen their growth in both power and ability, and if anyone could come out of the Fae Wars unscathed, it was them.)

But even as he wonders at their absence, most of his attention is focused on scanning the people moving back and forth. The darkness and firelight are making it difficult to identify who is where, and most of the dragons have already settled down for the night. But that's Nobert over there serving dinner, and Jack recognizes Eret over to the side speaking with Snotlout. He doesn't see Typhan or Bucket anywhere, which is strange since they're fairly tall, even for Vikings.

"--need to worry, bud." A low, reedy voice is carried to him by the winds, and his eyes dart to the source.

Oh.

Oh, _Hiccup._ It's like that first breath he took when he emerged from his pond, or the moment he fused his staff back together with his power. It's _relief,_ sharp and sudden and Jack feels his eyes grow watery as a smile spreads across his face.

Hiccup is speaking with Toothless to the side, as the dragon polishes off the last of what had probably been a generous pile of fish. His mother is further back, squatting over a fire and cooking something. Behind her, Stoick and Gobber are talking, the latter glancing at the fire every so often, an apprehensive look on his face.

He flies closer, settling silently on top of a large barrel to the side, studying Hiccup. He's grown; his hair is slightly longer, and he stands taller. But there's also a weight about him, a heaviness to his shoulders and eyes that Jack aches with the need to lighten. 

"No, bud, please don't worry. I'm fine." Toothless's next whine sounds unconvinced even to Jack. "No, really, I am. You should go spend some time with your girlfriend--"

His _what?_ Jack's jaw drops, which no one notices, since he's invisible. Toothless has a _girlfriend?_

"I mean, she clearly wants to spend some time with you." Hiccup gestures off to the side, and Jack turns to see a blue and white dragon lingering near the outskirts of the clearly. She's staring over at them, but turns and starts grooming herself when Hiccup and Toothless look over, which fools absolutely no one. Toothless and Hiccup continue their argument, but Jack doesn't look away from the new dragon.

She's shaped similarly to Toothless, and is the same size, but there are clear differences between them. The way her body curves is reminiscent of a seal, or beluga, and Jack can see extra membrane near her appendages. She's likely a sea-faring dragon, or at least a species that spends some time in the water. But... there's something else about her.

Something familiar.

Her coloring... the texture of her scales... It's true that her scales have the fish-like smoothness that Scauldy and the other aquatic dragons share. But there's something else there too.

Her coat looks like _snow._ The white of her belly is the color of powder in the sun, and the blue of her back shares its shade with the ice that forms over waves. Not just in color, but in the way the light hits it too. And the overall shape of her body is smooth, yes, but there are areas of sharpness; near her ears and wings, and the ridges along her appendages.

Oh.

She's an ice-dwelling dragon. Not like the Snow Wraith, because even from here Jack can tell she's a fire-breather. But her magic has a component of ice to it too, which Jack can feel. The sharp clear edge of frost and snowfall. She's a dragon who is adapted for living in the coldest of temperatures. She's built for aquatic hunting and speed, but those ridges and sharp areas are for ice and snow. Her claws, built to grip the smooth surface of ice; the ridges made for cutting through it.

Jack's eyes drift back over to Toothless and Hiccup, and then he snorts, laughing. Looks like Hiccup and Toothless have similar taste in partners; they both ended up dating someone with an ice-affinity. 

"Hiccup? Valka?" Snotlout walks over, and he's taller now too. The same heaviness that Hiccup wears like a cloak is present in Snotlout too, but somehow, he's carrying it better; not letting it drag at his movements and shoulders.

"Yeah, Snotlout?" Hiccup turns, and Valka stands up from the fire.

"I hate to interrupt, but there's a bit of an argument about the space where we've started setting up the dragons' stalls? Some other Vikings started building in that space, and now there's--"

"NO, YOU MOVE!" They all turn to see Eret locked in a fierce conversation with several other Vikings. Valka sighs and starts heading over, Snotlout close behind her. Hiccup and Toothless follow behind with a muttered, "It's always something."

Jack almost follows them, but is distracted by Gobber moving forward towards the food cooking. The blacksmith sniffs it once, and then immediately cringes away.

"Oh, by the boots of Tyr! I think I'll go with the gruel." He plods off towards Norbert, and after a moment of indecision, Stoick also leans forward to sniff what's above the fire. Seconds later he's quickly catching up to Gobber.

Quirking an eyebrow, Jack slips off the barrel and goes to smell--

Oh.

Oh _gods,_ no.

Valka was clearly going for a stew of some sort, but why did she add both sheep's meat _and_ fish meat? and the base was far too watery; she was essentially boiling the meats without adding any flavor to them. Jack pulls his herb pack out of his side pouch and grabs the ladle from the pot. He can fix this.

"Wind, do you think you can keep Valka and the others away from me for--" He glances down into the pot again. "--ten minutes?"

Wind whistles an affirmative. Five minutes later, in the middle of thickening the base liquid, Jack hears a loud bang.

"TUFFNUT!" Jack winces, but doesn't pause his cooking. That had been Astrid screaming.

"RUFFNUT!" Aaaaaaannnd there went Heather.

"Damn, Wind. You really don't pull your punches, do you?"

**_joy-fun-amusement-pride_ **

The clamor of the two shieldmaidens shaking down the twins dies down right as Jack is finishing up. He took a small sip of the stew, and it was a bit more acerbic than he prefered, but was the best he could do with the limited time and ingredients that he had on him.

Satisfied, he looked up, straight into two large blue eyes.

Sucking in a shocked breath, he quickly moved back into a standing position, hands held in front of him defensively. It was Toothless's girlfriend, the ice-dwelling dragon. 

Jack glanced backwards, but no, no one was behind him. She was looking at him.

"Hey there. So, I hear you're dating Toothless?" She didn't respond, still staring forward unblinkingly.

Frowning, Jack carefully waved a hand back and forth in front of her. Her eyes didn't follow it at first, and Jack was about to stop, but then her nostrils flared and she switched her focus to the general area his hand was in.

"Ok... So you can't see me, but you can tell that I'm here." He slowly moved away from the pot, not wanting to be in the way when the others headed back to get their food. She follows his movements, her eyes now down on his feet. 

Oh. She's tracking him by the frost forming on the blades of grass where he steps.

Smart dragon.

Jack's next step takes him into the air, where he floats in place for a second. The snow-scaled dragon also pauses, and then slowly moves closer, sniffing the place where he last stood. She lifts her head, scanning from side to side, but she doesn't seem scared or angry, just... curious.

Lips quirked up in a smile, Jack reaches out...

\--and boops her in the nose.

His finger stops just before it touches her, and a small bit of frost forms at the tip of her nose. She reels back, surprised, and then sneezes the frost off. She immediately tries to find him again, but Jack is already gone.

"Alright, Wind." He looks down into the campsite one last time, at Hiccup and his friends. Then his head lifts, determination filling him. "Let's go get my body."

\---

The one the humans called 'the Light Fury'(whose name wasn't exactly something that humans could translate) was intrigued. Something invisible had been in this place with the humans; she had felt the air flow change around it the way it did with her and her siblings. But it's camouflage hadn't faded once. Clearly it was very powerful.

But it hadn't done anything except make the humans' weird meat-water smell more like plants. And it had made frost! She thinks that it was trying to say hello.

She doesn't know what it is exactly, but next time she sees it, she'll get to the bottom of the mystery.

She hears a low greeting behind her. She turns to see the pretty dark-scaled one the humans called Toothless.

He is very weird.

But she likes him anyway. He smells very nice, and will distractedly walk into things when she preens near him. He was honestly very cute.

 **Hello, pretty-one.** She coos in his direction, and he perks up in response, but is interrupted before they can really talk.

"Mom?" Toothless's human calls over his shoulder. She still doesn't know what to make of him, but he seems nice.

"What is it, Hiccup?" Alpha Njörðr's human, Valka, comes over with two of the other humans; the big fluffy one she is mated to, and the one that has limbs of metal and wood.

"This is Jackson's cooking. I'd recognize it anywhere."

"What?" Valka seems shocked. She bends over the pot. "Hiccup... I didn't make this."

They lock eyes for a moment, and then Hiccup stands up and heads for the beautiful Astrid who rides the Nadder called Stormfly. She wants to talk to Toothless, but he's sniffing the meat-water and making sounds of old grief. He quickly bounds after his human. She hesitates a moment, but then follows him deeper into the human nest.

Then she perks up all at once, her head swivelling to look at the center of the nest. Had the invisible thing come back?

She bounds past Toothless and his human to the spot where the air had suddenly and aggressively been displaced from, and leans up to sniff around the top of the humans' pile.

 **What are you looking for?** She swivels her head back, and Toothless is there, next to his human who is now on the ground. Oops. That would explain what her foreleg hit.

 **Invisible thing!** She tells him excitedly, because this is a _mystery._ She loves those; it's part of why she became an outer-world scout for The Great Matriarch.

"Gah!" Hiccup rears back suddenly, as Toothless's eyes become slits and he bares his teeth. Around the nest, she can see the other humans begin to look at her.

No... not at her.

 _Behind_ her.

She turns, and the invisible thing is no longer invisible.

"Wow. What a welcoming reception." The human(?) says, deadpan. She has long, long black hair, and her eyes are gold like the sunset. Her false pelt is much thinner and brighter than the dull, thick pelts that the Light Fury has seen other humans wear.

She also wasn't acting very threatening, since she was sitting relaxed on top of the pile, but now the other humans were grabbing their weapons.

"Who are you? Did Grimmel send you?" Hiccup 's voice was low, dangerous. He was holding his fire-sword, but it wasn't out of it's handle yet.

"Who?" Gold-eyes asked back, arching one of her eyebrows high.

"Then the warlords? Did they send you?"

"No one sent me." Gold-eyes rolls her eyes, and sighs really loudly. "I'm looking for my brother, and I think he was here not long ago."

"Your brother?" Hiccup asks, dropping his intimidation act but still clearly wary. The other humans that he is usually with have grouped behind him, weapons at the ready, but they seem willing to listen to Gold-eyes first.

"Yeah. I was also kinda hoping to talk to Typhan, but he doesn't seem to be here." Gold-eyes scans the clearing, and then sighs again, looking forward at Hiccup. "I also wanted to try and meet a guy named Hiccup."

"What business do you have with Hiccup?" Astrid comes forward now, with narrow eyes and fingers hovering over her axe.

"No business. I've just heard a lot about him and wanted to see what he was like in person." Gold-eyes tells Astrid with amusement, before refocusing on Hiccup. "You're him, right? I mean, you match the description; tall, brown hair, pegleg, cute butt--"

"Cute _what?"_ Hiccup asks, sputtering.

"Butt. You know, your ass?" Hiccup sputters louder, even as Gold-eyes continues on. "Which means the scary, pretty blonde with the axe is Astrid. Short, brown hair, sideburns and thick build is Snotlout. Uhhhh, big blonde in the back is Fishlegs, and dark hair with a braid is probably Heather. And I can only assume that the twins trying to sneak up behind me are Tuffnut and Ruffnut; Tuffnut being the one with the cool beard, and Ruffnut with the cute dragon braids."

"Oh, she's _good."_ She can hear Tuffnut say from behind the pile, followed by the sound of a smack.

"And of course, that means the black dragon in front is Toothless." All of them seem gobsmacked and startled, even Toothless, who has dropped his aggressive stance in favor of looking at Gold-eyes with wide eyes and a dropped jaw.

Cute.

"Well, now that I've met you all, there's only one thing left to do." Gold-eyes stands up then, and the humans are instantly back on the defense.

Staring at Hiccup and his friends, Gold-eyes smiles. The gratitude and joy in the expression is clear even to the Light Fury, who is not always the best at reading human faces.

"Thank you for looking after my brother. For taking him in, and loving him as one of your own." She bows to them then, a deep bow, with her hands pressed over her heart. The humans look bewildered now, their weapons lowering as they stare at Gold-eyes. "For that, you have my gratitude."

Hiccup trades a look with Astrid, and then steps forward, approaching Gold-eyes.

"What is your name?" He asks her, and the whole clearing is quiet, waiting for her answer. 

"You can call me Emily." She smirks at him, then turns to look at the Light Fury. "You can tell when invisible beings are nearby, can't you? Did someone come by here earlier, trailing frost?"

She feels her ear plates perk up, and Emily seems to take that as an answer, even as the murmur of "Frost?" is repeated among some of the humans.

"Well, I'd better leave now if I'm gonna catch up to him. Wind!"

"Wait, who--" Hiccup starts to ask, arm reaching out for Emily, only to find himself buffeted backwards by the winds that have picked up around the golden-eyed lady. She laughs at him, loud and joyful.

"See you later, Hiccup! Ciao!" And then before the eyes of the clearing she turns invisible again. Damn. That is one impressive stealth ability.

"What in the name of great Odin's ghost just happened?" Snotlout asks, wide eyed and gaping at where Emily had been.

"I have no idea." Hiccup answers back, clipping the handle of his fire-sword back on his belt.

Remembering a specific thing that Gold-eyes had mentioned, the Light Fury looks over at Hiccup's butt.

Meh.

She'd seen cuter.

\---

"Boo."

Jack screams. To be fair, he's in the middle of the sky, flying at fairly high speeds. He wasn't exactly expecting to see anyone else in the lower stratosphere, much less have them _sneak up on him!_

"Emily!" Jack scolds her, as she cackles at him, practically bent in half with her laughter.

Then he double takes.

"EMILY?" How is she here? He's in the past, and this is clearly the version of her from the future. She's wearing her modern clothes, and he can see the friendship bracelet Cupcake made her on her wrist.

How in the name of the Triple Goddess had she gone back in time?

"Hey there, Snowflake." She's still laughing at him, but Jack is too shocked to close his gaping jaw. "Ahhhhhh, now that, that was fun."

"Wha-hey, that's my line!" He tells her, indignant. "No, wait, that's not the important thing here. How are you here?"

"Hmmm? Oh, I flew here. Isn't that right, Wind?" She winks at the sky around them, and the wind rustles around them, laughing. Alright, so Wind is in on the joke.

"You know that's not what I meant. How are you _here,_ in the past?"

"What, did you think I was just gonna let you suffer through the next thousand years alone? Please, Jack; you wouldn't know what to do without me." She says flippantly, but Jack _knows_ her. They both hear what she's not saying _. I wasn't going to live a millenia without you. I don't want to go through life without you._

He presses his lips together at the not-answer, but does it really matter how she came back?

She's here.

He flies forwards and pulls her into a hug. She's startled for a moment, but then hugs him back. It's tighter than their usual hugs; both of them aware that it might have never happened. They float there, the wind whistling around them softly; a family unbroken.

Jack had never thought she'd follow him; not even dared to wish it. But now that she's here, he feels so, so relieved. Emily is a person who knows all his secrets; who knows all of _him._ He's not alone. He feels tears prick his eyes, and he buries his face into her hair.

After a long, long while, she sighs slightly and pulls back.

"Cold." She complains, but it's half-hearted at best. Jack doesn't mention the redness of her eyes, or the tear tracks on her face. She doesn't mention his sniffles either.

"So... what're we doing?" She asks after clearing her throat. "Your Vikings are in that direction, but you're clearly going somewhere else."

"I'm going to get my body."

"Your body."

"Yeah."

"The one at the bottom of the lake?"

"Yup."

"...And how exactly are you planning on getting it _out_ of the lake?"

"..."

She blinks at him faux-innocently, waiting for his answer.

"...Shut up." Jack grumbles. She just laughs at him. "You're the worst."

"Yeah, that's what I thought you'd say. Luckily for you, I have a plan."

\---

"Well..." Emily purses her lips and raises her eyebrows at the scene before her. "I suppose it could be worse."

Jack shoots her a disbelieving look from his place at her side.

They stand at the edge of the lake of Valka's Mountain. The plan had been that Emily would use her affinity for water and her power to have the water literally carry the body up from its depths. There was just one small problem with that plan.

The lake was frozen.

"How exactly, could it be worse?" Jack asked, walking forward onto the lake's icy surface. She can't get over how different he looks, now that his spirit form looks nineteen. After three hundred years of him looking fourteen, the change is jarring. His hair is longer, and she can see how much Magic loves tossling those strands in its winds, with how windswept it is. He stands straighter too; he's almost up to her shoulder now, and there's a new level of confidence in his movements, even as he still walks as though he's about to fly.

He looks better. Happier. Emily hadn't realized how weighed down he felt in the future, until now that she could see him truly weightless again.

"Well, I can still feel some water down near the bottom, so it's likely your body isn't encased in ice." She points out, and then pauses as a thought occurs. "...And that means the fish are probably fine."

"Yeah, well even if it's only the top frozen, there's still at least--" He jumps up and lands back down hard, causing a thunk sound. He cocks his head, a calculating expression crossing his face. "...I'd say fifty to a hundred meters of solid ice, that we have to get through first."

"...Well! I'll leave this in your capable hands." Emily pats him on the back, and then starts skating. Jack double takes as she leisurely begins to skate in circles.

"Excuse me?" He plants his hands on his hips and scowls at her.

"Well I mean, you're the winter spirit. Out of the two of us, ice is your thing. So, you know..." She waves her hands at the ice, fingers wiggling back and forth, doing her best to convey, _do your ice magic thing._

He looks back at her, face deadpan, but she can see his lips twitching with suppressed humor.

She raises her eyebrows and widens her eyes, pasting an innocent expression on her face.

He rolls his eyes.

She grins then, and pauses in her skating.

"Alright, time to get to work." She snaps her fingers, and her magic follows along the path she just skated, lighting it up gold. Jack glances around with wide eyes, and she can see the moment he understands.

"Oh. That's clever." He grins back at her, and holds up a hand, silver-white ice energy leaping between his fingers. "Need a hand?"

"That was such a corny pun." She says through laughs. "Sure. I'll get the edge, you redistribute the middle."

"Got it."

The circle she'd lit up with her magic glows brighter for a moment, and then heats up. Steam rises as it instantly melts the ice and sinks down, creating a moat around them that's only getting deeper. Jack's eyes glow blue as he holds out a hand, and the ice they're standing on ripples upward into flakes. Magic catches the two of them and lifts them into the air on its winds as the flakes swirl over to the side, falling into a snow pile that grows larger by the second.

A minute passes like that, as they carve a hole down into the ice of the lake.

And then, the wind whistles happily, swirling around them. They've reached the water. Emily smirks, cracking her knuckles.

Time for her plan.

\---

"Alright. The warlords' armada is going to be coming at us from this direction." Heather drops a carved wooden boat onto the map in the sea east of New Berk. "Grimmel has an airship, so we need to be on the lookout for that, but based on the wind currents around the island, his most likely approach will be to come up under the cliffs over here."

"Thank you, Heather." Hiccup nods at her, then turns. "Fishlegs?"

"We've been mapping out the island's topography, and there are only three places total where a ship can access the island. We've been cross referencing with Terrorthi, and--"

Fawn yawns delicately, tuning him out. She's in her smaller form, sitting on top of Snotlout's helmet. She's only here so she can relay information from Hiccup to Tink and Peri, so that they can bring the rest of the Wyldfae back to New Berk in time to help them fend off the warlords and the Elder Sidhe.

Something is bugging her though. She had heard of the strange person who had appeared earlier, calling herself Emily. And her description...something about it was familiar.

Fawn knew she had heard of this person before. She just didn't know where.

Emily...Emily...Emily...the name was unfamiliar to her, but that description rang a bell.

She knew from the description that whoever this Emily was, she was powerful. Not just anyone could make the winds listen to them. The only person Fawn had met who could do so was Jackson Overland. But clearly this Emily was not him. She had apparently been tall and thin, with so much black hair that it had trailed to her feet. Snotlout had mentioned gold eyes, which made Fawn believe that she was a sorcerer. But of the sorcerers Fawn had heard of, none of them had been women by the name of Emily.

Gods above, this was bugging her!

"--and so if we can start building ballistae here, and here." Astrid was speaking now, pointing at areas on the island map. "Then we can head them off--"

"Chief!" Hoark came running up to them, shouting.

"What is it, Hoark?" Hiccup turned away from the table, facing him. Fawn sat up, craning her head to see better.

"Guild Master Typhan has just returned. When we told him about--"

"Move it! I need to speak with the chief!" Typhan's voice was raised as he moved through the crowd of Vikings gathered before the council. The Guild Master wasn't running, but it was the fastest that Fawn had ever seen him move.

"Guild Master Typhan." Snotlout greets, sharing a look with the other council members. "What do you need to speak with the chief about?"

"Emily." With the uttering of that name, every Viking in the crowd quieted, as attention locked onto Typhan, who didn't seem to notice. "A dark haired woman with gold eyes. She was here?"

"Yes." Hiccup straightens, his expression growing curious. "She mentioned you by name; said she had hoped to speak with you."

"She did?" Typhan sounds _gutted._ Fawn looks at him closer. His immaculate appearance is in slight disarray, and there is something almost like desperation in his face.

"Typhan, who is she?"

The Guild Master takes in a steadying breath and then lets it out in a sigh. He looks up, eyes staring at something far off.

"She was someone who I considered my own daughter, once. But that was a long, long time ago." He closes his eyes, and then reopens them grief shining out. "I did my best to raise her, but she betrayed me and lashed out, attacking innocent people. I stopped her and cast her out, but have not seen her since. I've never heard of her having a brother. In fact, I had not even known she was on E-the Archipelago."

Fawn narrows her eyes in suspicion at the stumble. He was saying something else, but had corrected himself.

"Well, she hasn't been here for long." Heather speaks up. "She was wearing foreign clothing, and it was much too thin to last long in this weather."

"Yeah, and it looked super weird." Ruffnut chimes in, rolling her eyes. "Her cloak's pattern looked like Death Song wings."

"Right? And how weird was her dress?" Tuffnut agrees.

"So weird. It was all leafy looking."

_What._

"And who the heck walks around barefoot?"

"Guys, enough about her clothing." Hiccup cuts them off, turning back to Typhan, but Fawn can barely hear him over the sound of her own thoughts.

_Death Song wings..._

_Control of the wind..._

_Gold eyes._

Fawn doesn't even realize she's flying until she's in front of Typhan.

"You raised _Mother Earth?!"_ She cries, and he blinks at her.

"Fawn? What's wrong?" Snotlout asks, and oh gods above, she forgot how quiet her voice is while she's in this form. It's times like this when she misses Jackson.

Flipping neatly into her larger form and landing on the table, she repeats her question to Typhan.

"I hath said, thee hath fostered Mother Earth?!" She asks again. Typhan blinks at her again.

"I'm sorry, I'm unfamiliar with that title."

"Tis obvious in hindsight! A sun-eyed maiden garbed in foliage, who doth wear the insignia of the butterfly? Her title and identity can only be surmised as Mother Earth; the high lady of all weather, to whom the elements themselves answer!"

"Wait, wait, wait." Fishlegs holds up a hand to halt her stream of words. "Better question; if Typhan raised her, and Fawn recognized her by appearance, shouldn't Valka's Intellectus have known who she was?"

Everyone pauses then, surprise dawning on their faces as they realize he's right. Valka frowns herself, her expression going distant in the way that it does when she is accessing her knowledge. After a moment however, she shakes her head.

"No. I still know only as much as the rest of us do." She turns to Typhan then. "Typhan, how is it that parts of your knowledge are inaccessible to me?"

"If I had to hazard a guess." He hesitates, clearly choosing his words carefully. "The man who I was before I was accepted into this tribe, the man who raised Emily, is not the same person as who I currently am. I've changed in so many ways, since coming here, and so although I am a member of this tribe, and a Hooligan through and through... I don't believe the Intellectus considers the same of my former self."

Fawn was impressed. That was a very, very fancy way of saying that although Typhan the mortal was a Hooligan, Typhan the Constellation was not. And she could see that the Vikings around her were accepting that explanation at face value. Nicely done.

"Alright, great. Mystery solved." Hiccup scrubs a hand over his face, slumping back slightly. "But back to the identity of Emily. Fawn, you said you recognized her description?"

"Aye." She nods. "The lady doth be a figure shrouded in mystique and mystery; her origins even more so. What is known is that a powerful being appeared one dawn, heralded by falling stars. The next day, all those in tune with Earth's Magic said the same thing. A Guardian had ascended, one chosen and favored by Magic itself. She had powers that none had seen before; complete control over the elements of nature themselves. It is from thus her title was named; Mother Earth, master of all elements. None know from whence she comes and goes, but those who have seeked her out and found her have described her as thus; a lady of dark hair and golden eyes who wears the mantle of a monarch, and a dress made of the foliage of Earth."

There is silence in the clearing, as the Vikings absorb her words.

"Are we sure this is the same person?" She hears from somewhere in the crowd, but she can't see the speaker.

"Did the winds themselves answer to her call?" Fawn asks back.

"Yeah. We all heard her call out before the air got all crazy." Snotlout answers, glancing to the other riders as they nod.

"Then let doubt be not cast upon mine own words. The lady whom hath named herself Emily, be Mother Earth herself. And to go upon the measure of her narrative..." Fawn turns to Hiccup. "The lady hath said you had her gratitude. Those words hold great meaning, among the Fae and other word-bound beings."

"What do they mean?" Hiccup asks, cautious now.

"Gratitude means a debt; one freely given nonetheless. Make no mistake, somehow, someway, you have won the favor of one of the most mysterious and powerful beings to walk the Earth."

\---

"Ughhhhhhhhh. I'm so _booooooooored."_ Emily moaned, collapsing into the snow.

When they had first pulled the body up from the water--after Emily had asked the lake to bring up the body and fed it some of her magic in return--Jack had been ecstatic. When he had made contact with his body, there was a _woosh_ sound, and his spirit form had dissolved into this silvery blue stuff and been sucked into his body's mouth.

It had been very weird to look at.

And then Emily had waited.

And waited.

When he hadn't gotten up, she had double checked to make sure he was, y'know, _alive._

Which he was. But he was also completely, and deeply asleep. And asleep he had stayed.

She had tried waking him up, but he hadn't reacted to her shaking him, and throwing cold snow on his face hadn't bothered him either.

So she was waiting.

...

GODS ABOVE THIS WAS BORING!

She needed to do something.

Her eyes landed on the snow surrounding her, and yeah. That'll do.

"Is that a cloak or a blanket?"

Emily was pulled out of her focus by a voice coming behind her. Magic hadn't said anything, and was just placidly swirling nearby, so it wasn't an enemy. It was beginning to lighten now with the coming of dawn, which she hadn't noticed, embroiled in her work as she was.

"A cloak." She finished knitting the current row she was working on, which didn't take long at all, and then paused to look back.

She turned her head, and there was a woman standing behind her. She was tall, even bending over to peer at Emily's knitwork. She had white hair braided back into a long mane, which ended in red-tipped spikes. She wore bone armor and some sort of scale-based mail, accented with red furs. Emily had never seen her before, but she matched the description of someone Jack had told her about before.

"Lady Skaði, I presume?"

Skaði's eyebrows lifted, genuine surprise entering her expression.

"Oh?" A shadow fell over Emily from her other side, a deep voice that rumbled like ocean waves. "Not many know that name."

"Yeah, well." Emily turned back to her knitting to start a new row. "Not many people have a time-traveling brother who happened to meet Lady Skaði in person. Isn't that right, _Snowy?"_

And then she shrieks as a cold finger jabs right into the ticklish spot on the side of her ribs.

"Cold!" She shoves Jack away from her, scowling at him. He just laughs and waggles his eyebrows.

"Thanks for the blanket, _sis."_ He snuggles deeper into the blanket she had made before starting the cloak, which she had draped over his sleeping figure upon finishing. But like hell is she showing softness in front of people she doesn't know yet.

Emily lets out a sharp _tsk_ sound, turning her head away as she scowls, so that he can't see the relief in her eyes that he's awake.

"I had to test my gauge and see if this material would suffice as yarn. Do not mistake it as a _kindness--"_

"Yeah, yeah, you're a hard hearted, stone-faced warrior, and you would _never_ knit a blanket out of snow for your _widdle brudder."_ He blinks up at her with an exaggerated pout, and she feels her hands clench around her needles. And then, just like she knew it would, the pout gives way to a wicked smirk.

"Tsundere."

That _little shit._

She takes a hand off a needle and flicks her fingers to the side, drawing moisture out of the air. Jack sputters as the water hits him in the face, and Emily smirks, calmly continuing to knit.

"Hatchlings." She hears Njörðr mutter behind her, accompanied by Skaði's quiet laughter.

"I've found that Jack has a way of bringing out the hatchling in all of us." Emily hums slightly, starting on the last two rows, switching to a double cast off technique so she could finish faster. "He has a way of making you look at the world in a brighter, more joyful way. And then you never feel quite the same afterwards. Life becomes more... fun."

There is silence as she finishes casting off.

"That he does." Njörðr finally says from behind her as she tucks the needles away. She doesn't turn to look at Jack, but she feels his hand brush against her shoulder. She knocks her knuckles against his wrist in a soft motion, and he fistbumps her.

This is why she came back. Not so she could hoard him away from his Vikings, or spend her days trailing after him. But so she wouldn't lose his presence. His quiet, unconditional acceptance of her, and all of her flaws. His way of making her look at the brightest parts of the world, when all she had ever done was linger in the shadows.

She loves him because he makes her want to be better. To choose, day after day, to live. Not just survive.

It's the kind of love that binds them as family, despite their lack of shared blood. It's the fierce and unquestionable bond of knowing that you'll follow someone into fire, even if only to burn beside them. And she knows he feels the same, because they both know one another, in a way that she hasn't known since the days when her father's steady hand guided her own.

She's already lost one family; she'll be damned if she ever lets that happen again.

Standing up, she shakes out the finished cloak. The snow she spun into yarn almost glows in the dim pre-dawn light. She'd defaulted into her favorite pattern; a lace knit that ended up looking like leaves.

"That's very impressive craftsmanship." Skaði comes up on her left side, admiring it. Emily casts an assessing eye over her frame. 

"Do you want it?" They're approximately the same height, but Skaði's frame is more muscled and broad. Still, it should fit her, albeit as more of a mantle than a proper cloak.

"Are you sure?" Skaði looks at her with shock in her gaze, clearly not having expected Emily to just offer it to her.

"Yeah, take it." Emily handed it to the goddess, going for as flippant a tone as she could manage. "I just made it because I was bored."

"Tsundere." Jack coughs out from behind his fist. Emily's eye twitches.

"Hatchlings." Njörðr mutters again, tone fond.

"Nonetheless, thank you for the gift." Skaði smiles at her, and oh. She was really, really pretty when she was smiling. "What is your name, spirit?"

"Ah. You would likely know me by the title Mother Earth." The two gods look shocked, or perhaps a better word would be _bewildered._ Emily smiles secretively at their surprise, and allows herself to appreciate it for a moment.

"Mother Earth? The Guardian of Life?" Skaði asks, looking her over, and Emily can see the realization dawning in her eyes.

"But for the two who saved my brother's life..." She places her hands over her heart, and bows to them, a grateful smile on her face. "Please, call me Emily."

As she straightens, she can see Jack blushing out of the corner of her eye. The softie.

The human Bewilderbeasts trade looks.

"As much as I'd like to hear the story of how Jackson gained the loyalty of one of Magic's most elusive Guardians--" Njörðr's face turns grave. "Time is short, and war arrives with the coming dawn. You must go to your Dragonlord." 

"Dawn?" Jack turns to the east, alarmed. The sky has been steadily lightening as they talked, and although it is not yet dawn, it's only scant hours off.

"Hiccup." Jack breathes out, fear entering his face, and that wouldn't do.

"C'mon. If we go now, we can outfly the sun." Emily pushes up into the air, the wind lifting her with ease. Jack nods at her, but doesn't enter the air, looking around instead.

"Where's my staff?" He twists, frowning as he tries to locate the length of gnarled wood.

"Here." Skaði offers, picking it up from underneath Jack's discarded blanket and holding it out to him. "And rather than traveling by air, might we suggest an alternate route?"

\---

The air was filled with noise. Metal clanging as swords crashed against axes, yells and roars filling the air. Sparks leaped from weapons even as fire billowed overhead, hot and bright. Lights flew against each other, magic slinging through clouds. The smell of blood and smoke was thick in the air.

Hiccup knocked the last raider on the ship overboard, and then turned. There were only three more caged dragons, and each of them was already being helped out by other riders.

Overhead, he could hear Toothless calling out orders as he dive bombed another ship with a squadron of Nightmares.

"Alright, get the dragons and clear out!" Hiccup called out, as he moved to the mast of the ship. Placing a hand on the wood, he dug into himself to the place where he could feel _fire._

Red marks crawled across his skin, and plasma dripped from his fingers, eating through the mast in seconds. As the thick trunk of wood fell, it smashed into the stern of the ship, destroying the rudder's axel, and ensuring the ship would never sail again.

Hiccup raised an arm to the sky, letting out a short whistle. Toothless flew down and grabbed onto him, carrying off the boat. He spun once they were high enough, and Hiccup grabs onto the saddle, seating himself. He looks down over the battle, noting how many ships had already fallen. Half the fleet is on fire at this point, but there were still around five dozen ships attacking. The majority of them have dragons in cages on them, so they couldn't just sink them and be done with it.

Above, Periwinkle and her blonde sister were leading a battalion of fae against staff-wielding faeries they called the 'Elder Shee'. They were winning, but it was making it hard to fly above the ships, with all the magic flying around.

"How are we doing?" Hiccup asks Valka as they fly up to where Cloudjumper is hovering, keeping an eye on the flow of battle with her Intellectus.

"No casualties so far, but one of the Guard's squadrons is out for the rest of the fight. They took out the rest of the ballistae with them, so once we get those net launchers, we should be clear to fly over the entire armada."

"Which means we can get to the warlords." Hiccup agreed. The three conquerors were on their flagship, near the back of the armada, and hadn't joined the battle yet. Seemingly content to let Berk tire themselves out fighting the first wave of ships.

"And Grimmel?" 

"No sign of his airship yet, and none of the Terror scouts have seen him."

"If you see him, you know what to do." Hiccup says, before Astrid flies up, and yep. Time to sink another ship.

The battle isn't hard. No, that's not the problem with fighting the warlords.

The problem with fighting the warlords is that the battle is _long._

They don't have the level of firepower that Berk has, but they make up for it with sheer numbers. For every person they take out, there's another ten charging with swords drawn. For every ship they sink, there's another five launching bolas at them.

And they can't fly straight to the warlords to cut them out of the picture, because they're surrounded by the most heavily armed ships in the armada. Their plan is clearly to do their best to wear Berk down, and then push back once they've hit their figurative and literal shot limit.

Berk is still winning, but it's a slow, slow march to victory.

It happens when no one expects it, and it happens _fast. </> _

Hiccup doesn't know how Grimmel got past Valka's system of Hooligans and dragons undetected, but suddenly he's _right there._ His airship is held aloft by his Deathgrippers, and to Hiccup's dismay, he recognizes the green tinted glint of magic-proof iron.

Still, he and Toothless both veer towards it, flying at speed to confront the hunter.

"Grimmel!" Hiccup roars, but the white haired man just casually wags a finger at his oncoming charge.

"Ah, ah, ah! I wouldn't do that if I were you." Grimmel tsks, pulling a lever that opens a hatch near the bottom of the airship.

And out drops the Light Fury, bound and muzzled. Grimmel swings his harpoon to aim straight at her.

 _"Shit!"_ Hiccup swears in English, a bad habit that even now sends a pang through his chest. He and Toothless swerve up out of their charge, instead hovering in front of the airship as they warily wait for an opening. Tyr damn it. That explains where Grimmel was all battle.

"Pathetic." Grimmel laughs at him, and what Hiccup wouldn't give to punch that slimy smile off his stupid long face.

"Let her go, and face me with honor, and you'll see how pathetic I am." Hiccup glared darkly, as Grimmel just snorted.

"Honor? What place is there for honor, when you live with animals?" The hunter shook his head slowly, condescendingly. "You have created a perversion of the natural order, and you still think to speak of honor? Dragons, fae, even that dead sorcerer that you used to keep as a pet--"

Hiccup feels something in him go cold and still at those words.

"--all of them are beasts that are too dangerous to allow to live! They are uncivilised, disgusting parasites who will destroy everything if allowed to run loose." Grimmel continued on, lecturing Hiccup as though he had any idea what he was talking about.

Hiccup was so mad he couldn't even speak. He could feel his Dragonlord markings crawling up his spine, could feel Toothless underneath him, shaking with rage.

"Look at you!" Grimmel gestures at Hiccup, flicking his hand dismissively. "You are the chief of your tribe, you have the ability to command dragons, and yet a single hostage is enough to stop you in your tracks! This obsession you have for keeping these lizards safe, it holds you back! It makes you weak."

"Weak?" Hiccup has to laugh, because really? _Really?_

All his life he had been called weak. Whether it was his father, his tribe, or his enemies, all of them said the same thing. He was weak. He was a runt. He was a hiccup.

All of them said the same thing, over and over, as if shoving his weakness in his face would make him bow to their strength.

All that had ever done was make him want to prove them wrong.

(What could he say? He was a Viking. He had stubbornness issues.)

"I am who you could have been, if only you hadn't been so weak." Grimmel spits at him, steadying his harpoon's aim in preparation to fire.

"No, Grimmel." Hiccup says to him, unbowed even as Grimmel prepares to fire. "You think the reason I didn't kill Toothless in the woods was weakness? It wasn't weakness that stopped my blade then, and it's not weakness that will defeat you now. You're a lot of things Grimmel, but you aren't who I would've been if I was weak. You're who I would've been, if _I was alone."_

With perfect timing there's a chorus of roars, as the other riders blast into the Deathgrippers, tackling them out of the sky. Grimmel's airship careens to the side, his harpoon flying harmlessly off into the distance.

"NO!" He roars, as he's flung off of his airship, hands just missing a grip. He falls, plummeting towards the waters below, and no one around him makes a move to save him.

In a perfect world, Grimmel would fall into the sea, and drown.

This is not a perfect world.

Grimmel lands, hard, on a blackened wooden surface that is rising from the sea. All across the battle, black sand cascades upward, enveloping the destroyed ships of the armada. There are screams as it overtakes those still on the ships, flowing over them like the oncoming tide. Dragons take flight, scattering from the strange, dark looking substance, but it stretches upwards like vines, snatching a number of them from the air before they get far.

The riders, still struggling with the Deathgrippers, were overtaken in moments, along with the Light Fury.

 **NO!** Toothless roars his displeasure. He dives down, wind shrieking around him in the way it announced all diving furies.

His first plasma bolt breaks straight through the sand, fire spreading out to burn up a majority of the sand. Hiccup jumps off, opening the wings on his suit and heading for the riders. He catches fire as he goes, becoming an arrow of fiery doom that smashes straight through the sand covering the airship.

"Are you guys alright?" He shouts, looking around for his friends, but is distracted by a roar of pain coming from Toothless. Spinning, he sees something he didn't expect.

Toothless is cringing away from his girlfriend, who looks... odd.

Her eyes are barely slits, they're so narrow, and there's some faded, dark shadow lingering around her. It would probably be nearly impossible to spot on another dragon if you weren't looking for it, but against her light blue and white scales it's clear as day.

And then the sand moves faster for a moment, and then stills. All over the water, the ships that were barely staying afloat before have transformed. They've become black and menacing; and all over them are cages made of the black sand. Trapped inside are hundreds of Vikings and dragons and fae. And as Hiccup watches, all over, dragons shudder, thrashing, before standing up and walking through the cages.

Now that he's seen it on Toothless' girlfriend, he can see the barely there, faint shadow enveloping each of them.

"Well now. What a quaint battle that was." A voice echoes over the ships, condescending and pitched strangely. Movement draws everyone's eyes to the warlord's flagship, where the black sand is rising again, spinning upwards in a column, contracting before it bursts outwards into powder.

Standing there is a man. He is tall and dark, and from here, his skin looks grey.

"Unfortunately, the battle is over. Breaking news: you all lose!" He laughs, and Hiccup's blood runs cold, then hot with anger. It is a high, mocking laugh, and it is a laugh of dark amusement.

"Pitch Black!" There is a roar from one of the ships, and Hiccup is surprised to find Typhan at the source. The guild master is _glowing,_ weirdly enough, and is gripping the sandy bars of his cage with white-knuckled hands.

"Typhan!" The dark man--Pitch Black?--says happily, seeming surprised. "I didn't expect to meet a former Constellation slumming it with the mortals, but you'll make a wonderful Fearling."

Typhan bristles, the glow around him getting harsher.

"Leave the mortals out of this, Pitch." He growls out, sounding more threatening than Hiccup has ever heard him.

"Oh, I'm hardly about to leave my new army behind." Pitch smirks, and Hiccup waits, not pulling on his Dragonlord powers yet. The more information this Pitch reveals, the better Hiccup will be able to figure out what he wants and how to fight him. "All these mortals, fresh to be turned into Fearlings. And they come with such a pretty bonus, too! Dragons. With that much firepower, I'll be able to destroy Mani easily--"

Mani? Hiccup feels something in him pause at the name, remembering amber eyes and a sad smile.

"--and rule the world, once enough time has passed." Pitch laughs, gesturing with a hand. "The barrier is already up, and so not even the Guardians can reach me now! I've won!"

And then he freezes.

Literally.

Which is to say, the entire flagship gets frozen, in a familiar looking ice attack that has Hiccup's breath catching. There is a moment of stunned silence, as everyone looks at where Pitch once stood. After that moment passes, the newly made iceberg shudders, and gets cracked in half as black sand breaks it from the inside. From behind the flagship, not one, but _two_ Bewilderbeasts surface.

"Who dares--?" Pitch roars as he rises from within the ice, spinning to face the two gargantuan dragons. Familiar laughter rings through the air, and Pitch stops.

Hiccup stops.

Everyone stops.

It feels like the world itself has ground to a halt, as that familiar laughter rings through the air, and every eye moves unerringly to its source. Hiccup remembers ice and warm food and a hand holding his and soft lips pressed against his own.

_I promise I'll always be there._

Something in Hiccup that had gone cold and hard and still and dead suddenly comes back to life and _breathes_ for the first time in almost a year.

_Elskede._

Standing on the Bewilderbeast's head, Jackson Overland smiles at Pitch, and waves.

"Hey Pitch! I'm sorry to ruin your gloom party, except no, I'm really not!"

"Jack Frost." Pitch hisses at Jackson. "Look at you, you're all alone, without any of your precious Guardians. I'm going to enjoy _destroying you."_

Hiccup feels the boat underneath him catch on fire, as his inner fire explodes with pure, unadulterated _rage._

"Awwww," Jackson pouts, mockingly. "And here I thought you learned your lesson the first time. If you want me to kick your ass again that badly..."

His staff whirls, and he _leaps off the Bewilderbeast._ Before Hiccup can even shout, the wind picks up and Jackson _flies into the air._ He settles there, floating, as a hundred Vikings and dragons and fae gape at him. He smirks.

"Come and get it." His staff extends, in challenge, and Pitch rises to the bait. Throwing his hands down, a hail of black sand erupts into a wave beneath him, rising towards where Jackson is waiting.

Ice follows the swing of his staff, flinging a wave of bright winter towards Pitch, but the man blocks it and counters.

An arrow of black sand shoots towards Jackson.

It misses, but Hiccup feels the fire inside him flaring up higher and hotter because _how dare._

He just found Jackson again.

Anyone who wants to hurt him, is going to do so over _Hiccup's dead body._

And then the fire rises up, and the black sand surrounding him is incinerated.

A shout of pain echoes out before he can do more, and he looks up, heart in his throat.

But Pitch is the one staggering back, a hand covered in ice at his side. Jackson moves his staff back, preparing to swing again, and Pitch holds a hand out towards him.

"I wouldn't take another step, Frost." Pitch grins then, and the black sand on each ship starts contracting, the people and dragons in the cages crying out. "I have hostages."

"Do you?" Jack grins, and Pitch looks confused for a moment.

And that was when things really got crazy.

The ships shuddered in the water, the black sand undulating, only for the wood of each ship to literally begin sprouting branches. Thick wooden branches that twisted through the air, weaving together so that the ships are made completely immobile. 

_What?_

And then all across the new wooden battlefield, leaves and budded vines sprout. The black sand seems to have figured out they aren't good, and goes to attack the vines, but the buds open into flowers that... eat the sand?

Again, _what???_

"What is the meaning of this?!" Pitch demands, watching the cages holding his hostages get eaten by flowers. The weird shadow dragons roar and go to attack the vines, but the freed dragons and humans beginning defending, doing their best to subdue the shadow dragons without harming them. To his right, Hiccup can see Toothless fighting against his girlfriend, the two furies both taking to the air as they struggle.

Laughter rings through the air, and a tall woman steps into view on the other Bewilderbeast.

"Well, Pitch, you know what they say." Emily says, wearing strange armor and holding a blue-bladed spear. "Nature's a bitch."

And then she leaps into the air, and slashes her blade horizontally. From it, a wave of light fans out, and hits the nearest shadow dragon. Something weird happens there, as a pained screech rings out--but not from the dragon. Instead, the shadow itself seems to be screaming.

"Hey Hooligans! Their weakness is light!" Emily calls out, loud enough to be heard across the battlefield, and then dives for the shadow dragon she'd hit, engaging it in battle.

Hiccup looks towards where Jackson has resumed his fight with Pitch, and then grits his teeth and goes to help Toothless.

He needs to get in the air.

\---

Emily knocks the Dream Pirate out of the dragon (finally) and watches as the morning light disintegrates the dark magic that keeps its souls imprisoned. Flicking her blade to get rid of any excess residue, she takes the moment to overlook the battle. The Hooligans seem to be holding their own well; teaming up with the fae to corner the possessed dragons and expel them from their hosts. Njörðr and Skaði have also joined in the fight, corralling the Death Pirates who have tried to fly off and flee.

Glancing upwards to where Jack is fighting Pitch, Emily can see him beginning to grow tired. He is a mortal once again, and he only just returned to his body. It's no surprise that the amount of magic he's been throwing around is beginning to exhaust him.

Unfortunately, Pitch has noticed as well.

He's slowed his strikes to match Jack's flagging pace, and so Jack isn't expecting it when he suddenly speeds up and knocks Jack's staff out of the way.

Emily lets out a wordless cry of alarm, the wind picking up around her and shooting her upwards, but someone else is way ahead of her. 

Pitch gets blown backwards by a plasma blast as Hiccup and Toothless shoot up between him and Jack. Hiccup holds out a hand and Jack is already grabbing it, sliding into the saddle with his Viking with the ease of long practice. Pitch recovers, and goes to blast them with sand, but by then Emily is there.

Her blade sings through the space between them, wind whirling with it, keeping the sand away from her. Snarling, Pitch creates a scythe, and begins battling her one on one.

Their blades crash together like cymbals.

When Emily advances, Pitch counters.

When he strikes, she parries.

It is a dance she learned young, and one that she has never truly forgotten.

They make their way down to the floating battlefield of wrecked ships. Pitch has access to more of his sand now, but Emily can now block with her flowering vines.

The longer they fight, the more a frown sketches its way over Pitch's face.

She knows why.

Every move he makes, she blocks or counters or dodges. No matter what move he makes, what trick he pulls, she still predicts his next move.

He fights like her father.

She fights like her father too.

But she fights better. He is fighting off of muscle memory and the lingering memories that the strongest Fearlings can get from their hosts.

She is fighting, because it is the dance her father taught her as a child, and she has never forgotten the steps.

Here is the truth of the matter. Pitch Black has Kozmotis Pitchiner's memories and skills and even his feelings.

But he is not Kozmotis Pitchiner.

He is just his shadow.

Emily was only a child when her father guided her through how to hold each weapon. When he carefully taught her footwork and basic slashes and advanced parries. But she loved and admired her father. And she never forgot his lessons.

Emily is the Last Pitchiner, and she is made for war.

This is how it ends. Black sand swallowed by flowers. Pitch, his back to the wooden ground of the ships. And Emily, standing above him.

Her blade at his throat.

The crowd of Vikings and dragons and fae who surround them are silent. They understand the honor, and sanctity of a duel. They will not interfere.

Emily stares down at the monster who sent her crashing onto this planet. The one who has haunted her dreams and nightmares and who she hates and fears more than any other.

Her hand is steady.

She takes a deep breath in.

The blade doesn't move, for a long, long moment. And then it arcs forward, faster than any eye can track--

  
  


...burying itself into the ground beside Pitch's face. He's frozen, eyes caught on Emily's face as she straightens back up.

"I can't."

She has thought of this happening before; a thousand different times, in a thousand different ways. To finally kill the monster who destroyed her hopes. A moment she has been waiting dreading longing hating wishing wanting to arrive for so long. But now that it's here...

"Jack... I can't." Emily's crying. The tears are heavy and silent as they course down her face, a physical proof of her weakness. "He's the monster who destroyed everything I loved. But..."

"But?" Jack asks quietly from where he stands to the side, no judgement in his voice. Only understanding.

And that, in the end, is what pulls the truth from her.

"...but he's wearing my father's face." It is a quiet confession. She doesn't yell, or scream, or collapse. Her anger drains, the festering pus of a thousand years, finally leaving the wound. And when it is gone, all that is left behind is resignation.

She feels tired. Weary, all the way down to her bones.

"Emily?"

Pitch Black says her name like it is something to fear.

"Pitch Black, destroyer of light... what the fuck do you want?" She asks him, her tone carrying no emotion. He's still staring up at her, eyes wide and glittering with some emotion she's too tired to name.

Pitch sits up, slowly, never taking his eyes off her.

"You have destroyed planets and families and a whole empire. What was the point? What is your goal?" She demands, just so sick of it all. She has been running all her life; from responsibility, from the things that scare her, from the things she doesn't understand.

She's tired of running from the truth.

"...Do you know why we are called Fearlings?" He asks her, and his voice is soft in a way she's never heard. "It is because, of all the emotions that surface when we enter a host, fear is the one that wins out. Almost every time, the fear drowns everything else out, and that is the other thing that remains. The only thing that lingers afterwards."

She feels more than sees Jack walk forwards to stand next to her.

"When Kozmotis Pitchiner died--" Emily flinches inwardly, because gods. That might just be the first time she's heard it said out loud. "--he wasn't afraid. No." Pitch shakes his head, but never takes his eyes off of her. "The only thing he was thinking of was his daughter, Emily. The only thing he felt was love."

Something inside Emily hurts, as the child whose father promised to come back to her sobs.

"It shaped me, when I was born. Made me different from the other Fearlings. My goal was that of all Fearlings, to create a place in this universe where we are accepted. But that is not the only goal that drives me." Pitch stands up, and Emily is next to her brother, surrounded by Vikings. She can make a weapon in less time than it takes to speak.

So why can't she stop her knees from shaking?

"I am born of Kozmotis Pitchiner's fear and love." Pitch Black tells Emily Jane Pitchiner. "And there is nothing in this universe that can make me knowingly raise a hand to his daughter, now that I know you are alive."

He kneels to her, and the scariest part of all this, is that she can tell he's sincere.

Gods above and below, she is just so drained.

"Gods...Jus--just stand up, will you?" He stands, slinking upwards with grace. "Ok. You don't want me harmed, do I understand that correctly?"

He nods.

"Alright. Awesome. Rule one: I have people I care about on this planet. If you hurt the planet, that harms me. So don't. Capiche?"

He looks taken aback, but slowly nods. Great. She sighs.

"Why the fuck does this stuff always happen to me?" She bemoans, and feels an arm loop around her shoulders.

"Chin up, sis." Jack cheerfully tells her. "Think of it this way; you won the battle, and now you don't have to worry about killing Pitch!"

"You are the worst brother I have ever had." She moans again, tipping her head back to glare at the sky.

"By default, that also makes me the best." He responds, undeterred. She rolls her eyes, pushing him off her.

"Go and smooch your Viking, you nerd." She flapped a hand imperiously at him, and he laughs and begins moving towards Hiccup. He almost immediately breaks into a run.

That lovesick dork.

"HICCUP!"

Her blood runs cold.

That isn't the cry of someone joyously reuniting with their boyfriend. Jack's voice was filled with panic and fear.

A set of thumps sound out as she spins, weapon ripping itself from the ground to leap into her hand.

Hiccup is on the ground, having been pushed down.

A distance away, the thin weasel-like man that Emily had thought was dead, is back on his crashed airship.

Jack is standing there with a harpoon through his chest.

The cry that rips itself out of Emily's throat is more animalistic than human. She thrusts her hand out, and the metal of Grimmel's airship winds up and engulfs him, the spikes and sharp edges eating him faster than he can scream.

She's already looking back to Jack, and oh gods. The harpoon has gone straight through his lungs.

She can't heal that.

There's a chiming sound as the metal in Jack's chest goes white and brittle with frost, before it shatters. The blue of his outfit starts turning red with blood, and Jack collapses.

Hiccup is there before he even starts falling, catching him around the shoulders and waist to avoid hitting the wound. He lowers him slowly, carefully, as Jack begins to cough wetly.

"Jack." Hiccup sounds horrified, staring numbly as her brother bleeds out in his arms.

"Hiccup." Jack smiles at his Viking, even as blood trickles from his mouth. Emily feels frozen, something inside her burning and freezing and _hurting._

"No. NO, you can't go, Jack." Hiccup shakes his head in denial, tone pleading. "Please, I just got you back, you can't leave."

"Sorry, Hiccup. I couldn't keep my promise."

"No, no Jackson, Jack, please." Tears fall down his face, and Hiccup's voice starts to crack with his sobbing inhales.

"Will you tell me... what it means?" Jack raises a hand to stroke Hiccup's cheek. "Even though I can't... keep my promise?"

Hiccup can't speak for a moment, so overcome that only sobs come out the first few times he opens his mouth. Jack's raspy breaths mixing with the sound of Hiccup's crying in the air; the only noise Emily can hear.

The wind is silent.

"Elskede means beloved." Hiccup says when he can finally talk, trying to smile back at Jack, even though every line of his face is full of pain. "It means you are the one I love most. Who my heart yearns for and the reason it beats. It means that everything I do, everything I _am_ is because of you."

He lowers his head to press his forehead to Jack's.

"Because you stood by me, and spoke to me, and shaped the person I am today. It means that you are here, in my heart, always."

Hiccup intertwines his fingers with the hand Jack has resting on his cheek. He moves it to rest over his heart, and Jack presses his hand into the dragonscale armor covering it.

"That's a wonderful word." Jack looks up at his Viking, and presses a chaste kiss against his lips before pulling back. "Hiccup... I love you."

Hiccup cries harder, hands clenching into the fabric of Jack's clothes, as he pulls him closer.

"I love you too, Jackson."

Jack smiles then, and it is the most beautiful, heartbreaking sight Emily has ever seen.

"I saw the token you left on my staff." Jack whispers, something sad coming into his eyes then. "And I need to tell you something."

"Jackson, I--" Hiccup begins.

_"Yes."_

Hiccup stills, eyes wide as he stares at Jack.

"My answer is yes." Jack laughs, and it's wetter than before. Blood bubbles up between his lips.

"Jackson." Hiccup looks scared now, true fear coming into his eyes.

"I'm sorry. So sorry." Jack murmurs, softly. His eyes are going cloudy.

"No, no, Jackson--"

"Sorry."

"Jackson!"

"Sorry." He says silently, and then closes his eyes. Hiccup keens from deep within his throat.

 _"Jack."_ He says the name like it was torn from his chest. "Please, no. Elskede, _please."_

The crowd surrounding them is silent, the quiet broken only by Hiccup's broken sobs.

Around her, she can see Vikings taking off their helmets and bowing their heads.

In mourning.

Because Jack is dead.

Again.

  
  
  
  


no

No.

"No." Emliy says out loud, because she is the Guardian of Life, and she couldn't even stop her brother from dying.

But like hell if she's letting him stay that way.

Emily walks forward. She kneels next to Hiccup, who doesn't look up.

"Jackson Overland Frost." She says the name slowly, tasting each syllable. An odd resonance echoes behind her words. "The first time you died, Manny was the one who raised you from the water, turning you into a spirit."

A hush abruptly drops over the crowd, and Hiccup stills, where he's bent over Jack.

"It took three hundred years, but you found a way back to your body, even though everyone would have said such a thing was impossible. The second time you died, Njörðr gave you the power to rise from the water, and once again, you became a spirit. Once again, you found your way back to your body."

Hiccup raises his head, looking at Emily with an unreadable expression on his face, but she doesn't look away from Jack. Her eyes are starting to glow, and the wind is picking up, swirling around her and lifting her hair with its strength.

"This is the _third time you've died._ Forget Manny, forget Njörðr, and forget whatever higher power wants to fucking play with you like a pawn!"

She shouts that last bit at the sky, because _fuck you Lunanoff,_ she's still angry about that.

"You are Jackson Overland, heir of the Taliesin Clan, warlock of Magic, and Druid of Berk. You are Jack Frost, Guardian of Fun, herald of winter, and scourge of Dream Pirates. You are Odin's student, you are Magic's friend, and you are my _brother_ in every way that matters!"

There are tears coming from her eyes now, but she doesn't stop, she can't stop, even though everyone around her can see her crying.

"You are a mortal, and you are a spirit, and you are both and neither and something in between. And I'm sorry, Jack, but there is no one who is coming to save you this time. You have to save yourself. No one is raising you out of the water, and I know it's deep, and I know it's dark, and I know it's _hard,_ but you have to swim up to the surface. So _please."_

She leans down and cups his cheek with one of her hands, whispering so soft that only Hiccup can hear her.

 _"Live._ If anyone can do it, it's you. I believe in you, Jack."

A hand cups Jack's other cheek. She looks up, and it's Hiccup, also staring down at Jack.

"I believe in you too, Jackson." He says, intense and sincere and so desperately full of hope that it hurts to look at. "I believe in you."

"I believe in you, Jackson!" Gustav cries, red eyed and snot dripping out of his nose.

"Me too! I believe in you!"

"I believe in you, Jackson!"

"I believe!"

"I believe in you!"

All around throughout the crowd, the cry is repeated; is spoken and shouted and screamed and whispered. The dragons roar besides the humans, the Fae and gods and giants all saying the same thing.

_I believe._

And there is _light._

The dragons are the first to light up; their markings glowing with draconic magic. The Fae's constant lights shine brighter, dozens of stars lighting themselves in the air. But it doesn't end there; the humans start to shine too. Snowflakes hung at their waists or on their armor begin to light up. A hundred Vikings in a hundred colors, glowing in their chests and hearts and voices. 

Those lights spiral into the air, joining together in a shimmering rainbow of pure magic. It swirls above them, mesmerizing in it's vibrant whirlpooling. And then it begins to funnel into a stream, slowly but surely pouring down and down and down.

Into Jack. The lights envelope him, disappearing into him until all of them are gone. And everything is silent, not even the wind blowing.

Emily doesn't dare to breathe. If this doesn't work...

It happens so slowly, so gently, that she almost doesn't realize it's happening. Silver light pulses from Jack's wound, so dim that it's barely there, but growing brighter and brighter as time passes. Threads of magic, silver and blue and gold, spilling out from the blood. They weave into the air, forming a familiar pattern as they expand. It's ferns. Dozens and dozens of frost ferns. They keep expanding outwards, growing bigger and filling the space, and suddenly Emily _sees._

Jack's ferns, they're not plants, they were never plants. They're _feathers._

It's a bird. Glowing with magic, and radiating energy with the vibrancy of stars.

It's... Jack's power...

It's a _phoenix._

Emily's heard about them; the great birds that burn with cold instead of heat. Beings so full of life that when they are killed, they don't stay dead, but are instead reborn again.

_Holy fucking shit._

The phoenix made of Jack's magic spreads its wings wide, and then starts glowing so brightly that Emily has to look away. When it fades, she peers out from beneath her eyelashes to see the last wisps of the magic making up the bird fade away. Looking down, she feels her breath catch in her throat.

Jack is still lying there unmoving, but his hair has turned the white of his spirit form, and there is frost on the hems of his clothing. Everything is silent around her.

It's begun to snow.

Swallowing, she reaches out her hand, placing it back on his cheek.

He's colder than death.

"Cold." Emily declares, and around her Vikings recoil as shock and sadness fills their expressions. But she's smiling, even as a hand comes up to poke her in the cheek.

"Rude." Jack tells her, opening his eyes to grin at her. "Every time, you do this. Of course I'm cold; I'm a winter spirit."

"Not currently, dumbass." She banters back, relief and happiness making her chest feel fit to burst. "Right now you're a winter _god."_

"Po-ta-toe, Po-tah-toe." He flippantly replies, and then grows serious. "Emily... thank you."

"Anytime." She smiles back at him, and then leans away so he can look at Hiccup.

"Hey." Jack smiles at him, with tears in his eyes.

"Jackson." Hiccup breathes out, like a prayer, like a miracle.

...And now they're kissing.

Emily very quickly stands up and walks away because no thank you she really does NOT need to know what Jack does with his boyfriend.

She tries to pretend she isn't smiling.

She fails.

Looking around the crowd, she waves as she catches Typhan's eye. He's standing next to Pitch, and seems to be... threatening him? That's definitely what Typhan seems to think the conversation is.

Pitch, on the other hand, is smirking and eyeing Typhan with amusement.

"Later." Emily says, knowing the winds will carry it to Typhan's ears. He nods at her, and smiles back.

The riders have all come together to celebrate, the dragons roaring their approval to the heavens. She can see Astrid dipping and snogging a tall dark haired man, which means she's not as single as Jack remembered her being.

Damn it.

Emily makes her way over to the edge of the crowded battlefield. Njörðr and Skaði are over to the side, having a conversation with Toothless. Nearby is the lighter colored dragon that could recognize invisible things. Their tails are twined together, and it's adorable.

Emily sighs.

"Damn, Wind. I have got to find myself a girlfriend."

Her friend just laughs at her, because it loves to see her suffer. But she laughs too, because she's in the past, behind the barrier. Her brother is here and happy, and won't be dying anytime soon. Pitch isn't someone she needs to fear anymore, and she's finally going to have a chance to talk things out with Typhan.

Plus, there are a bunch of _very_ pretty Vikings in the crowd.

Sure, happy ever after isn't instant, or easy, but Emily thinks this is a pretty good start.

And with a thousand years?

She laughs, and smiles into the coming dawn.

Things are gonna be just fine.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you, Silverly, for creating Heart of a Dragon's Soul. I love that series so much, and even more, the friendships I have found within the comments of the story. Happy anniversary to an incredible series, and thank you all for being such wonderful friends!


End file.
